People with dementia often experience apathy, withdrawal, and loss of speech, which reduces opportunities for social contact and self-expression. Touch is one of the senses that remains relatively intact and can support reminiscence, comfort, and non-verbal communication when verbal abilities decline. TouchME explores how a touch-based medium can support social cohesion, offer alternative ways of “speaking,” and help counter the stigma that reduces people with dementia to their symptoms.

Why?

The project focuses on early-onset dementia, where behavioral changes, emotional disturbances, and emerging memory issues are present but some abilities and preferences are still available to work with. The concept is a cloth-sized prototype divided into four textured modules, each linked to a soundscape of everyday natural environments, intended for use in a familiar, safe location on an elevated “sound touchpad” platform. 

Scope

I combined desk research on dementia with a focus on experience-centred design shaped by user-centred approach. The user tests were conducted to understand how people with dementia interact to various randomly selected textures and their reaction to familiar sounds in public. Based on these observations, I refined texture combinations, sound mappings, and cloth layout to keep interactions intuitive, calming, and inviting for people with early-onset dementia and their caregivers.

Approach

TouchME encouraged people with dementia and their caregivers to explore, talk, and connect by touch: participants curiously browsed the textured cloth, linked sensations to personal memories, reacted with smiles and exclamations when sounds like leaves and waves appeared, and used both verbal comments and subtle gestures (nodding, returning to favorite areas) to express enjoyment—showing that the cloth can act as a shared, multi-sensory trigger for reminiscence and relational closeness.

Results